One Too Many Lies

I'm not really sure what to say about this. It was written in verse. It took me less than two hours to read it. Not much happened throughout the book. Paige just went out to parties with friends and went to school. I would recommend if you want to just fly through a book to add to your reading challenge otherwise I would skip it.

I received this as an arc from netgalley for an honest review. I wanted so badly to love this story but I just didn't. I didn't care for the characters or the story line that they were given and found myself wanting the end to come sooner. It felt as though it was dragged out and I just didn't have much interest for anything in this novel. 2/5 stars.

A very disappointing read. I did not like this book at all, as it was nothing but hazy mockery of a girl's life. I did not enjoy reading it, and would not advise this book to readers.

It was in a way of poems and was a short read. Loved the story. About the friends and how can sometimes white lies can lead to major issues. Only thing was the end was bit sudden. But overall a good read.

The format of this book was... interesting. I have to say I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as I’d have liked. I’m thinking that maybe this is my fault, as it just feels a little too young for me. It is a young adult book, so I’m sure a younger reader would appreciate it more than I was able to. I’m so happy to have received a the complimentary eARC from NetGalley so that I had the opportunity to read it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a review copy.
I gave this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed this poetry book, each poem continued the story. Some of the things mentioned in the beginning reminded me of some memories from when I was younger. Paige the main character followers what her friends were doing so their friendships wouldn’t fall apart. I tried that but not as bad as she did. She changed who she was and made some bad decisions. There weren’t any lines that stood out to me that I liked. There were some lines that did stand out to me but because I did g like the division the people made.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would in the beginning.

I haven't read many books written in verse, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much story could be told in so few words. We learn everything we would need to know about the three girls and their families through Paige's poems. We see these three sixteen-year-old girls evolve very quickly because of the pace and style of the book.

I would love more books that center around these kinds of characters. I think, especially in YA there's a lot of focus on the "good kids" and few stories about people who make mistakes, who sneak out because they want to and not because their friends are making them.

Overall, I found this book well done, interesting, and because it's written in verse, an extremely quick read. I would recommend it.

Paige and her friends are high school juniors eager to become adults and finally have their freedom. As the year progresses they continue to weave a web of lies and half-truths, falling into patterns that could destroy their futures. But what happens when the lies become too much?

I was initially drawn to this book because it is told in verse, but I was instantly drawn in because of the vividness and prose. I read this book in one sitting because I found myself wanting to find out the end of Paige’s story. This story would be perfect for middle and high school libraries. Bowen packs a powerful punch in this verse story and could help teens realize the danger of peer pressure and weaving a continuous web of lies.

This book won't be for everyone. its written in verse that are kind like a poem. Its short but its about friends that tell lies about parties about bigger ones.

Paige along with Kate and Abby her best friends skip school where she meets Morgan at a party where they take part in drinking, trying drugs and playing party games while still having a crush at school on Alex.



Am while lying to their parents about w where they're going and staying out late after sneaking out first...



Told in verse this is a powerful tale of growing up and struggling to fit in and find love as well as acceptance with their friends about their lifestyle. As the lies build up we see how they have to deal with the consequences which teaches us the lesson about karma and never assume everything will be fine. It was hard hitting and real dealing with issues teens will probably come across.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

One Too Many Lives is a verse poetry novel centred around a group of adolescent girls and their experiences. The novel is fast and easy to read, being a fan of verse poetry the format overall proved to add to my reading experience, however, I can imagine that it could be jarring for some readers to get into. Personally, the main issue I had with this book was how the characters were integrated into the story. Some of the characters didn’t have a satisfying ending and so by the end of the novel I felt confused about what I had just read.

The majority of the time, the novels that leave a lasting impact on me are well explained and lead me to know all the characters well and I'd befriend them in my imagination. I felt a wall drawn up between me and the characters of one too many lies which I desperately tried to climb over but couldn’t. They all just fell a little flat in my opinion.

I didn’t enjoy the novel, I felt like I had to desperately make my way to the bottom of every page to continue, which shows I wasn’t really interested in what was going. This proves I didn’t have a way of falling into the story and that I didn’t connect with the characters. The poetry was alright but wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen done better before, however, I did really like the ideas behind what was being written and personally I’d be interested in looking at more of Bowen’s work as if I had been a fan of the characters, I believe I would have loved the novel and been raving about it.

One Too Many Lies tells the story of Paige and her friends. They're juniors and soon, they lose themselves into parties and small lies that become much bigger ones after a while.

I read this in an hour, maybe two and that was cool. it's told in Verse and I like that, most of the time. I'm not really sure I loved that poetry but it was okay.
The story had ups and downs. I didn't love the main characters but my younger self could partly relate with them.
I didn't love that all those 16 year old end up dating college guys and that nothing ever came from that big problem.
All in all, I found it to be an uneven, fast read.

Overall, a good, quick teen read. I didn’t put together this was a poetry book until I started reading and that’s outside my normal style, but it was interesting. The author did a good job of telling a fairly common themed teen story using a first person perspective through poetry. It read very quickly and was appropriate for a pretty wide age range of teens.

Thanks to Net Galley and the author for an ARC that I received in exchange for an honest review.

Had this been the sort of poetry I came across in any other random book, I might not have liked <i>One Too Many Lies</i> by L. A. Bowen. I can tend to be pretty picky with my poetry, which shows in the fact that there are very few compilations that I enjoy. Bowen accomplished something impressive with her collection of poems detailing the accounts of a group of 11th grade girls as they navigate the world of adolescence.

I was quickly immersed in this world with three teenagers falling into the party scene and the habits of drinking and drugs and older boys. It was a high school I personally never experienced, but one I almost felt part of. I grew increasingly fascinated with Paige and her story and actually found myself genuinely enjoying the verse form through which it was presented.

This alone was a bit of a shock as the last book I read that functioned like this was one I did not enjoy at all.

But <i>One Too Many Lies</i> is a brilliantly woven story about a young girl struggling to find her place, developing through peer pressure and proximity from a shy and somewhat nerdy girl to one who regularly parties and nearly often into trouble with her friends. Paige’s journey in this poetry collection is brilliant and poignant in a number of ways.

I’ll say, I think the synopsis was a bit over dramatic, as was the final poem. But all in all, I really enjoyed this read. It waas fairly quick, something I was able to start and finish within the span of a single day and definitely something I would consider reading again.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

Starting the book I was a little confused, as it is only written in verse. I thought that it was only the beginning to have a different start into the story, but after not too long I noticed that the entire book is written in verse. It’s kind of like not rhyming poems telling you a story, which is actually pretty cool if you think about it. The downside is only that it is hard to connect to the characters as the book is also really short. At times it also feels quite rushed and especially the ending had me sitting there, waiting for all of my questions to be answered, as so many plot points are left not spoken of.

Due to it being written in verse and it not being very long, it also lacks depth to both the plot and the characters at times. I would have liked to not just read a story on teens that just scratches the surface, but the book being written in verse made it harder I suppose. But on the other hand did the simple writing make it easier to relate to the characters and it gives you real insight on the main character’s struggles and thoughts. I myself had some points in the book where I could see myself in the situation or the conflict and really liked that about the book. The thing was that you could understand the main character’s opinions and thoughts, but you still didn’t really get to know her and her personality.

What I also liked about the book was that the plot is realistic. It is said that the book is based on the author’s own experiences which could also explain the quick, abrupt and unsolved ending, maybe it was the same way as it had happened to the author.


In the end the plot was nice and different for a change, it was also a completely different experience for me to read a book entirely in verse, which I liked. The writing made it a bit hard to get to know the characters and the plot only scratched the surface of everything that could have developed from it.


My rating: 2/5

The book will be released on the 1st of December 2018, so if you liked what it sounds like you’ll be able to get it then.

This book was quite underwhelming given what the synopsis promises. I thought that this could have been developed further and the story that we got felt unfinished with more interest being put into the verse format. If this book had been write in a standard prose style, it would've been better.

This just didn't turn out to be for me. I think that stories written in verse have the opportunity to come out really powerful, and this had the potential, but there wasn't enough time to familiarize yourself with the characters enough to become invested in what happened. The story wasn't bad and I think that if it had been a little longer with more time put into forming the characters (beyond their indiscretions), this would've been more up my alley. The girls had an interesting story to tell, but it almost felt like there just wasn't enough information about everyone and everything to get the full effect of said story.

Paige and her friends tell the subtle lies that are a part of daily life. White lies to avoid insulting friends. Fibs to escape unwanted judgment from classmates. Half-truths to evade their parents’ watchful eyes. But could their lies become dangerous? What happens when the lies become a matter of life and death?

This book is told in verse poetry to keep the pacing interesting. This book was rather short, I felt like this could have been a short story. This felt like too much of an Ellen Hopkins wannabe book and less of what it could have been.

The characters could have been more developed and had more of a personality. It lacked depth that most readers crave. It was rather predictable based on what else is on the market for the young adult genre.

I recommend this book be redeveloped into a longer piece and have a few twists to keep readers engaged. I was pretty disappointed by this. Luckily, it was short.

This one is my second verse book. I liked the idea of it. Only problem i have is this books are too short so i can't invest the story. Everything happened so fast and i loved to read behind of Paige's choises. But i enjoyed it.

I am quite obviously not the target audience for this book but I was intrigued by the blurb and really wanted to read it.
This is written entirely in verse but is very short.
Too short, in my opinion for the characters to have any real personality and didn’t appear to have much of a story and what it did have was sadly predictable.

Paige just started her Junior year in high school and leads the life of a "typical" teenager: she has her two best friends, on weekends they go to different parties to get drunk, and flirt with boys. In addition, she also has a love for poetry and records all her emotions in the form of free verse poems. These poems make up the story the reader holds in their hands.

This means that for the length of the book you are reading one free verse poem after another. Sadly, I felt that this was a bit tiring halfway through, each poem felt the same. It was as if there was nothing happening, nothing fresh or different. One way that could have been used to show Paige's character development would have been to change the style of the poems.

In addition, I may be a bit of a traditionalist but I am not convinced by the movement that using random line breaks in sentences counts as poetry. While this tool can be used to place empathy on certain words it feels rather arbitrary in "One Too Many Lies".

It was also very hard to connect with any of the characters. At first Paige always seems to be the same - rarely having more than one dimensions to her character: you know next to nothing about her family, you never learn what motivated her, and she seems pretty flat and stereotypical.

Then something happens that shifts her behaviour and thinking. However, the amount of time dedicated to this change is far less than it deserves. Not even a third of the book deals with her character development. This it seemed very sudden, and as a reader you are not able to follow it.

Overall, I must admit that "One Too Many Lies" by L.A. Bowen falls flat. I couldn't get into the story or the characters. Neither was the writing style appealing.

I have a special place in my heart for verse books. I love the creativity and uniqueness on them. I had high hopes for One Too Many Lies but it fell flat. The story was very clique and boring. There was no emotional connection to the characters thats makes these stories flow.

THANK YOU NETGALLEY AND THE PUBLISHER FOR THE COPY OF THIS BOOK. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE MY OWN. 

This book was not for me. The book is written in verse. I felt this could have been written better with more of a story to it. The book was not going anywhere with the characters or nothing too exciting happens.

Paige is the girl writing as if she is in her journal. She writes down everything that is going on around her. She and her two best friends tell little white lies to people around them if it is about their age or where they are staying the night. 

The story is short and maybe could have been a bit longer so we could get more from the characters. But all in all, I almost DNF the book but kept going for hopes that it was going to get better with the plot but nothing came of it. 

I gave it 1/5 for the lack of character growth, not very detailed or scripted. The story of the girls and the white lies was just not very interesting or exciting for me.

Overall as a whole, I thought this story was okay, this was my first time reading a book in verse.
However I didn't feel like there was much too the story, like it was somewhat flat. For a short book, I couldn't really connect with the characters.

I'm not a fan of poetry. I read this book cause the synopsis and the cover. But it surprises me. I never read a book wrote like a poetry that likes a romance book, but in verses. I really like it. It's short (for me), but well wrote. I thought that it was like the book "One Of Us Is Lying", but it is about the choices Paige for her life. It's really really good.
More review about this book in my blog: https://t.co/zH7XGXlrGr

While I did like the story, I felt like it was way too short for the reader to connect to any of the characters. The ending left too much up for question and I was disappointed.

This novel in verse could have been powerful, but there was not enough story to connect with the main characters. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I was not expecting this to be in verse. It just looked messy on my kindle. I didn't know the point of the story.

Overall I didn't mind this story. I liked the free verse poems it reminded me of books such as Cut and Glass. However this one didn't really have much of a story and I wish I connected with the main characters more. The whole thing seemed to just be one scene almost and I felt that it could have been more in depth. I also felt that the characters were a little on the flat side and I found the story very predictable. What little story that
there was was very expected. Not my favourite but I think that had mostly to do with the length.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I am super disappointed in this book. I felt like it didn’t go anywhere. it was really uninteresting.